Overview of Sarah Wallace
Sarah Wallace can be described as a warm, kind-hearted, outgoing young woman who always left an impression on everybody she met. Sarah was a 20 year old, living on her own while working two jobs with dreams of becoming a nurse to assist hospice patients. Sarah was incredibly close with her sister in law, Betsy, who Sarah met when she was 11. Sarah was always reliable and made time for the ones she loved, particularly for her nieces and nephews.
A few days prior to her death, Sarah had attended her grandmother’s annual Fourth of July party; it was Sarah’s favorite holiday. However, her family quickly noticed that she was wearing a long sleeve tee shirt and grew concerned that Sarah was covering bruises or self harming. Sarah had a history of depression and was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and had sought out treatment.
The next day, after clocking out of her shift at CVS where she worked as a pharmacist she went to her second job at the ball field where she see’s her brother, Andrew and father,Danny. By 11:00PM Sarah had plans to meet up with her boyfriend, Leonard Messer for drinks at a local bar. The two got into an argument as Leonard had been drinking at the bar all day and ended up sitting at opposite ends of the bar. Sarah and Leonard leave the bar separately. In the early morning hours of July 6th, Sarah made a pit stop at CVS to buy cigarettes before heading home. At approximately 1:15AM a neighbor heard a loud noise and felt the entire apartment building shake. Sarah was killed by a gun shot wound to the neck while Messer was in the apartment. Messer left the residence and returned to his parents home where his mother, Jean Messer, called 911 saying “my son shot his girlfriend”. Messer would later tell police that Sarah was emotional and wanted to hurt herself, and the gun went off during a heated exchange between the two. However, police would find Sarah slumped over with the gun in her lap and a bullet wound in her neck. Based upon the positioning of the gun on her lap investigators felt it was unnatural for it to be a self inflected gunshot.
When first responders arrived on scene, Betsy noticed commotion at Sarah’s apartment complex. Betsy immediately called around to Sarah’s friends and family, as well as calling Sarah directly but got no answer. Other relatives would arrive on scene and were able to talk to officers patrolling the scene for information.
One month later, when Sarah’s father, Danny Wallace was working at his bar, Groesbeck Tavern, a patron by the name of Jackie Lange told Danny that her friend, Kimberly Bohache Abney was with Messer shortly after Sarah’s passing. Bohache-Abney and Messer had an on again-off again relationship and claims that Messer had confessed to killing Sarah. Upon receiving this information, Bohache-Abney told Messer to leave her home.
Fast forward, 10 years later and there were minimal updates on the case until Messer was brought in front of a grand jury as the main person of interest in Sarah’s death. Unfortunately, the jury felt there was not enough evidence to move the case forward. If you have any information please contact Hamilton County Sheriff’s office at 513-946-6400.
